


Why She Left

by AshyGurl101



Category: The Deep (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, This isn't canon, and it hates me, rated for suicide contemplation and attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:07:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26589364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshyGurl101/pseuds/AshyGurl101
Summary: Nobody ever explained why Will disliked the WOA. Nobody ever explained why Kaiko left the WOA. Nobody ever explained how Will and Kaiko met. Most importantly, nobody ever explained how it all linked together...
Relationships: Will/Kaiko
Kudos: 11





	Why She Left

**Author's Note:**

> Just so you know, I'm feeling really weird and emotional and have 'Eastside' stuck in my head, but in a really depressing way that makes me want to burst into tears. So this'll be... ya know what, just read it.  
> TRIGGER WARNING: suicide is contemplated and almost attempted.

_ 'We'll be back in a few weeks, Will.' _

_ 'But Mum, what about _ **_ — _ ** _ ' _

_ 'Don't worry. We'll make it to your race.' _

_ 'You'll be back in time?' _

_ 'I promise.' _

That was the last conversation William Nekton ever had with his parents. They hadn't come back in time. Will had swum in the Olympics. He didn't win, but that wasn't important. He thought his parents were there, smiling proudly.

But when everything was over and Will had gone home to get away from everyone, he got a call from the World Oceans Authority, reporting them missing, presumed dead. Their last transmission had been a plea for help but was cut off by his father screaming before they could relay their location.

The WOA had put investigations forwards but kept coming to a dead end. Eighteen months later they closed the case, replacing it with the 'more important' task of making the ocean a safe place to travel in.

When he heard that they weren't going to keep looking, Will just... stopped. There was no other way to describe it. It was like when the case of his parents was closed, he closed too. He stopped going to college or out in general. He turned the centre over to others who knew what they were doing. He spent days at a time in his study, living in the past as if he could run away from the painful reality that was the foreseeable future.

But he still kept walking on the beach. He wouldn't do anything else, anything that reminded him, but that. He walked along the beach every day with this parents for as long as he could remember. Now, he couldn't stop. Even if he just touched the sand with his foot before he went inside, he always walked.

_ 'If you love the ocean with all your heart, it will always be with you,' _ his parents had told him. But he loved  _ them _ with all his heart. And they were gone. And nothing could ever get them back.

* * *

Will woke from his stupor in the study and realised that he hadn't walked that day. He looked at his watch. 03:15:22.

He'd missed a walk.

He didn't do the one thing that made him feel like they were still there.

One thing, one way of keeping his hopes up.

"No."

Will ran outside. The moon had disappeared behind an unforgiving cloud.

"No."

He sprinted to the ocean, as if he could turn time back, as if his life depended on him touching the beach. The wind tore the sand up and churned the water, reflecting his guilt and angst. He ran all the way to the edge but didn't touch the tide.

He spread his arms to their fullest extent, showing the storm that he'd made it. He spun in a circle, proving he'd done it, but it wasn't the same.

He'd missed a walk.

"No."

Will let his parents down. They walked on the beach every day of his life. Before he could stand, they carried him down to the sand. Will would walk every day they were gone on a trip. He never missed a walk.

Even after they disappeared, he still walked.

For twenty ** - ** one years he'd walked along the beach. Every day for two decades.

Until now.

Will shut his eyes, standing motionless in the sand, eyes stinging, fists clenched.

He'd missed a walk.

The skies opened and screamed in the way he couldn't. Rain poured down on him, soaking him in another blanket of guilt.

He ran, not caring where his feet took him, unable to tell whether the tears streaking down his face belonged to him or the clouds.

He ran, uncaring of the stone underfoot, not knowing if it was him or the wind howling in pain.

He ran ** — **

And he stopped and scrabbled back.

Will stared at the edge of the cliff, the ocean beneath working itself up into a roiling mass of accusation, the sky above pelting him with guilt.

_ 'If you love the ocean with all your heart, it will always be with you.' _

He teetered on the edge of the cliff, life and death swirling around him with wind and rain and tears and guilt.

His parents were gone. They couldn't be with him. They couldn't join him.

But he could join them.

He danced along the edge of the cliff, each time tilting that little bit closer to the ocean below, making it that little bit harder to get his balance again.

_ 'Stop,' _ a voice whispered.

Will ignored it.

_ 'Wait,' _ the voice insisted. It was louder, like someone was walking, no, running to him. Will closed his eyes and looked calmly for his parents. He could almost see them. He reached out for the welcoming arms of his mother ** — **

"Are you Will Nekton?" Will looked up and a person was there. She reached for him and he jerked back, forgetting about the cliff below. He flailed wildly, suddenly remembering how much he  _ didn't _ want to die.

The storm whirled around him, spinning like a coin mid ** - ** toss, rolling like the dice of destiny. Light. Dark. Person. Water. Cliff. Sky. Person. Cliff. Sky. Person.

Woman?

"No!" she cried. "Stop!"

And Will realised that he was hanging over the edge of a cliff, not by his arms or hands or even fingertips, but by the grip of a woman. She heaved and managed to bring him partway over the edge. He rested his elbows on the lip and examined her curiously, as if neither of them was on the brink of death.

"Can I help you up?" she asked breathlessly, hands ready to catch him again.

Will smiled a bit. He liked this one. Most would probably ask why the hell he was on the edge of a cliff and what was his problem. But she asked if he needed help to get off the edge of it.

He lifted himself back over. The woman grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the edge, though it probably wasn't necessary.

"Don't stand up yet, you're probably in shock. Follow my finger."

This was too much. Will snickered. The woman frowned at him.

"I like you," he explained, "because you aren't asking why I almost fell off a cliff. Most people would want to know what the hell was wrong with me."

The woman furrowed her brow. "You're Will Nekton, aren't you? I want to help."

Will remembered when Commander Pyrosome called him and said the same thing, right before she announced the case was closed. His expression soured. And, now that he looked, this one was wearing a WOA uniform too.

"I don't need 'help' from the World Oceans Authority." Will stood up. He was not going to associate with them anymore.

The woman ran after him. "Look, I know it looks like she sent me, but I'm actually going against direct orders. This is gonna cost me my job, so you'd better listen to me."

Will ignored the woman and didn't look back.

"Your case shouldn't have been closed."

Will closed his eyes briefly. "They've been presumed dead."

"I can help you look for them. I have the files."

"They had a submarine."

The woman caught up to him and stood in front of him.

"So do I." Will stared at her and she smiled guiltily. "Well, I stole it. From the Commander. A World Oceans sub could be useful in the meantime."

"Couldn't they track it?"

"If I didn't mess with their system."

Will sighed sceptically. "You really want to find my parents?"

"Don't you? I know they were looking for something." The woman's ocean eyes blinked hopefully up at him.

"Where is this submarine?" he ventured.

Her face lit up. "At the jetty a few hundred metres away. Do you want to pack anything?"

Will raised an eyebrow. "I've got a few maps and scrolls. And the blueprints, um, for my parents' sub. If you ever want to return the other one."

He started jogging in the direction of his house. The woman followed silently. Once he'd put the few possessions he wanted to take into a box, he followed her down the other side of the beach and up the jetty. As promised, there was a sleek little submarine with the World Oceans Authority logo on the side.

The woman climbed into a hatch in the top, took the box and disappeared into the submarine. A minute later, she climbed back up and held a hand out to him.

"Stranger danger. I don't climb into people's submarines without knowing them first."

"Oh, sorry," the woman apologised. Then she smiled shyly and said the four words that changed Will's life.

"My name is Kaiko."

**Author's Note:**

> Oh fml I hate this. *bursts into tears* It isn't even good! And they were supposed to meet in college!


End file.
